San Ysidro document burning probed

Apparently shredded documents at the San Ysidro School District site.
/ Aaron Burgin

San Diego police and the FBI are investigating what appears to be the suspicious burning of public records in a maintenance yard operated by the San Ysidro School District that may involve former Superintendent Manuel Paul.

Officers and agents descended on the Otay Mesa Road property adjacent to district headquarters on Wednesday afternoon, cordoning off two areas where documents appeared to have been destroyed.

"We do have agents there on scene conducting an investigation," said Darrell Foxworth, special agent for the FBI.

He declined to provide details.

Investigators were summoned to the district property shortly after noon, after an employee reported finding shredded and partly burned documents.

The employee, who did not want to be identified because he fears retaliation at work, told U-T Watchdog of reports that former superintendent Manuel Paul was on the property overnight, destroying records that were supposed to be retained by the district.

Trash can, cordoned off by police tape, in which documents may have been burned.

Paul was terminated as superintendent earlier this year after he was indicted on corruption charges by a San Diego County grand jury along with more than a dozen other South County educators and contractors. The defendants all have pleaded not guilty and face trial next year.

Paul is also under federal investigation in an unrelated case. In a deposition last year, Paul admitted accepting $2,500 in cash in a steakhouse parking lot from a South Bay contractor who was seeking work with the district.

The deposition was part of an unrelated lawsuit filed by a company that claimed Paul improperly cancelled an agreement to install solar projects on San Ysidro campuses.

Paul, who could not be reached for comment Wednesday, testified under oath that he accepted the money in cash but that it was a political donation he used to buy campaign signs for school board candidates.